Parental Guidance
by Love-is-Cyanide
Summary: Due to Iemitsu's absence throughout his childhood, Tsuna didn't believe in fathers. When Reborn was cursed with the body of an infant, he didn't believe he'd ever find someone to call "family". However, maybe family was closer than they thought. ONESHOT


Love-Is-Cyanide FanFiction

**Parental Guidance (A KHR FanFiction)**

5

Title: Parental Guidance

Rating: K+/T (Swearing, Crime)

Characters: RebornxTsuna (familial)

Summary: Due to Iemitsu's absence throughout his childhood, Tsuna didn't believe in fathers. When Reborn was cursed with the body of an infant, he didn't believe he'd ever find someone to call "family". However, maybe family was closer than they thought.

~~~OOO~~~

"Oi, dame-Tsuna! Wake up!"

"Mmm. 5 more minutes, Dad." Came the reply, muffled by the pillow keeping the mouth somewhat shut.

It was five in the morning, and Reborn, after the fiasco that was the future the tenth Vongola generation had returned from, had immediately set up a new, much more intense training regimen for _all_ guardians. Every day, Tsuna and his subordinates, "_They're my friends, not subordinates, Reborn!"_, would wake themselves before the sun was up, and would train until long after the sun had set. They didn't even get a break during the actual day, because it was the summer holidays.

Now, the holidays were almost over, and everyone, especially Tsuna, was looking forward to going back to school, and escaping the Demon Tutor from Hell for a few hours a day.

~~~OOO~~~

Tsuna had never had a father. Oh, he had one in the biological sense, but he was never around to develop the emotional bonds needed to become more than a sperm donor, to become a _dad_. As a young child, he had often wondered why there wasn't another parent in the house, like all of the characters in the fairy tales he read did.

For other children, this was another reason to pick on the girlishly cute boy with uncoordinated legs. They would call him unwanted, abandoned by his no-good father. Tsuna would just stand there and try his _goddamned hardest_ to ignore the taunts, because his Mama told him his Papa loved him and was just a 'very busy man', and his Mama had to be right!

As the years went by, the taunting turned physical, and _his father was still not there_. Tsuna used to wish for his father to come home, to tell him he loved him, that he was _proud_ of _Tsuna_, but not anymore. Now, he wished his no-good, absentee father would just stay away, and allow his Mum, his rock throughout his childhood, to move on with her life.

Longing became regret. Regret became anger. Anger became hate. Hate became indifference.

And then Reborn arrived, and turned his whole world upside down.

~~~OOO~~~

In Reborn's mind, nothing was more important than family. Whether they were related by blood or by sweat, they were _family_ and therefore, to be cherished.

As a young adult, before he got involved with the Arcobaleno, before he became the World's Greatest Hitman, he'd been in a long-term, steady relationship, contemplating marriage with his girlfriend.

That was before his father's past as a man wanted by the Mafia caught up with him. His girlfriend was kidnapped, taken as a hostage, and Reborn was left to clean up the debts of his recently deceased father. It was many years before he had cleared the debts, and by then, his hands were so stained by the blood of those he murdered, he himself was wanted by the police, and had earned himself a spot of the list of the world's Most Wanted.

He'd earned himself a title within the mafia too. "Silent Sun" They whispered, afraid to say it too loud, lest he appear behind them and put a bullet through the middle of their head.

His girlfriend, disgusted and frightened of the man she loved, _had loved, not anymore_, left him in the middle of the night, hailing a yellow taxi, taking a lone suitcase,and Reborn's happiness, with her.

Without his girlfriend to act as his reason to hold back, Reborn threw himself into the Mafia life, taking on progressively more and more challenging missions, pushing his limits in a futile attempt to get over his love. He became cold, dangerous and deadly, taking missions from anyone so long as the pay was good.

Police began actively hunting him, raiding his safe houses and arresting his family in an attempt to get information that they didn't have, Reborn having fallen out of contact with them years ago.

He became acknowledged as the "World's Greatest Hitman". When he first heard the title, he'd choked on a hit, and received a bullet to his left thigh in response. Even while he had his sun flames to accelerate his healing, he still had to take 3 weeks off work to recover his previous agility. In those three weeks, he reflected on his life since his love left him, and realized he couldn't even recognize himself.

He began to withdraw from the Mafia, becoming much more picky with the missions he took on. What was the reason for the hit? How would the people contracting it benefit? He became almost impossible to contact, and rumours sprung up that he'd been caught by the police, or killed on a hit.

People began to forget about him, turning him into a myth within the Mafia, a figure used to scare the misbehaving mafia children. For Reborn, money was starting to run out. He began putting out feelers again, looking for a job that wouldn't make him feel like the scum of the Earth. There were several months of little success, everyone convinced that he was just a copy, and therefore, not trusting him to get the job done.

Several years went by. Jobs picked up again, and he got himself a second spot on the Police's Most Wanted List (they too believed he wasn't the _real _Reborn, just a really good imposter). Reborn was walking into his main safe house, because hit men didn't have anything as _nice_ as a _home_, returning from a successful hit in India, when he spotted a man with a checkered mask and top hat sitting in _his_ lounge room, _drinking his coffee_.

The proposal he received that night would be the first of many life changing moments, and one of the ones he would remember with bittersweet fondness, hating it for the pain it caused him, but loving it for bringing him his new _family_.

~~~OOO~~~

Meeting Reborn was one of Tsuna's favourite memories. No matter who he was with, or where he was, looking back upon the time when Reborn first said "Ciaossu" on his doorstep, 2 feet tall and angry as a wet cat when he was promptly dismissed by his new student, a brat infamous for being "Dame", would always bring a smile and a light chuckle to the Vongola Decimo's lips.

In Tsuna's mind, Reborn was more than _famiglia_, more than a tutor who stuck around and made him strip in the middle of the street to ask the love of his life out. To Tsuna, Reborn was _family_.

Reborn was the first one to tell Tsuna that he _could_ do something, that he could _be somebody_. He was the first to push Tsuna to his limits, often past them, and be waiting just ahead of him, ready to catch him if he was truly struggling. It was thanks to Reborn that Tsuna became more than a victim.

To Tsuna, Reborn was symbolic of everything that mattered to him, because Reborn was the one who arranged everything so neatly, that within the space of two months, Tsuna went from being alone to having his own group of brothers and sisters. Naturally, as the one to bring them all together, because no matter how much Iemitsu tried to take some credit, Reborn was the one to find them in the first place, Reborn became the Dad, the Papa, the Tou-chan.

He became the one Tsuna would turn to, to cry about how much paperwork his childish guardians had caused, _"Again!"_, the one Lambo would find on the nights that Tsuna-nii wasn't there to save him from his own nightmares. The one who brought Bianchi and Hayato back together as family. He was the one Kyoya would turn to for a quiet cup of tea, and whom both Mukuro and Chrome would first visit to get ideas for new illusions, Mukuro for torture methods, and Chrome for disguises. He was the one Yamamoto would run to every time it sank in that this Mafia game was _more_ than a game, that this was _serious_.

He was the rock, the centre and the shield for the family, protecting them from the worse elements of the Mafia while they protected him from himself, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

~~~OOO~~~

Reborn's first impression of his new (_no good_) student was that he perfectly represented his nickname, "No-good Tsuna". He was clumsy, girly, weak, cowardly, lazy, and _dio Mio_, so fucking useless, that Reborn didn't know whether to begin with academic or physical training, or just give it up as a bad job!

First impressions are almost never accurate, unless you're Reborn of course.

The first five months were filled with whining, crying, screeching, and pain for both parties involved, while they settled themselves into a rhythm that they were both (somewhat) happy with. The citizens of Namimori quickly became used to the sound of bombs, gunshots and rockets, and the sight of a baby shooting a teenager, who would then strip, scream, and run down the street.

The next ten months were also filled with explosions, shrieking, crying, pink smoke, garlic gas, lots of fire, and Bianchi attempting to teach Tsuna how to cook, and quickly being banned from the kitchen by Nana when she saw the results.

Whenever Tsuna would try to complain about Reborn's "_tutoring_" methods, he would just find himself in a worse situation. Reborn was firmly of the belief that the Vongola's famed Hyper Intuition only worked on dangers that the boss had been directly exposed to. Reborn just had a lot of fun devising his next way to torture his student in the name of "_education_". Sometimes Tsuna would curl up in his sleep, thinking he had just heard the devil laughing (again).

~~~OOO~~~

Reborn had a personal rule when dealing with his students. Well, actually, he had several, but only one was _really_ important.

_No emotional attachments._

Tsuna never got that memo.

~~~OOO~~~

Reborn never realized how much Tsuna meant to him, until the stupid idiot refused to give up his boss watch, and stay out of the deadly Battle Royale.

The gut-wrenching fear and worry that Reborn felt during that whole accursed game was a new experience, and an eye-opening one.

The sheer _pride_ when his student managed to pull off his plan, and _saved him_ nearly brought him to tears.

The uplifting happiness when Checkerface accepted the new way of holding the Arcobaleno pacifiers would have lesser men jumping.

The love pouring through Tsuna and into him when they hugged, grasping each other like they would never let go, made him realize he had found what he'd always wanted.

_He had a family. He had found his home._

~~~OOO~~~

**Aaaand that's a wrap folks!**

**Hehe, Reborn hates the Counting Crows now. Especially their song "Big Yellow taxi." (Please don't hate me for that!)**

**Thanks for reading this. I hope I've finished it nicely. **

**Please R &amp; R, I really appreciate your support!**

**Have a great day/night, and I'll see you in my next story!**


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